Ask-A-Linguist Message Details

Subject:

Best approach to teaching a child Russian in a monolingual English environment

Question:

Hello,
I am Russian but I permanently live in the UK with English
husband and a baby boy. I'm really eager for my son to speak
boy Russian and English but I am concerned whether my
approach is the best.
I am a stay-at-home mum at the moment and I speak Russian
to my son as much as I can. Sadly, it is not always possible to
follow a strict ''One Parent One Language'' method. I'd love to
only speak Russian to my boy and for my husband to only
speak English, but living in the UK means we go to English-
speaking baby groups (including singing English songs at our
local library at a reading group), we meet English friends and
even at home my husband and I communicate in English
between us. Surely, he should be exposed to being with other
children and adults a lot in order to develop his social skills,
too. I try really hard to surround my boy with Russian as much
as I can (talking to him as much as possible, reading Russian
books and singing Russian songs, speaking to his
grandparents frequently and for long) but unfortunately I do
not speak Russian exclusively to him.
Is it going to be a major problem for his learning of Russian? I
worry at some point he might refuse to speak it to me since
he knows I also speak English on some occassions.
My husband does not speak Russian fluently, so we cannot
make it our family language at home.
Please, would you advise to me the best approach?
Thank you so much in advance.